Tiny Moving Parts: “We just want to spread a positive message, you know?”

Fans of mathy, melodic post-hardcore with emotive twists, rejoice. Tiny Moving Parts are back, and with their sixth outing no less. The family band find themselves starting out 2018 releasing ‘Swell’, an album so rich in melody and promise of hope that it’s the perfect way to kick off the new year.

“This was the first time it was a little bit more intense, but it never really got to us, we were confident going in,” says Dylan Mattheisen of the creation process. “We were really satisfied with how our previous record ‘Celebrate’ turned out and we just wanted to do better. We try and one up ourselves.”

‘Swell’ finds Tiny Moving Parts at their most unrelenting; flourishes within riffs, and their infallible energy, finding new ground to build on. “I believe we were in the studio for forty-something days,” Dylan continues, “and before we got in the studio, we had all the songs written.

“We still managed to tear apart songs, delete some and reconfigure a lot; with home-demoing, you can only make it sound so good. Recording in the studio, it’s nice to hear how it’s coming out. We put in a lot of time. We were super judgmental of everything to make sure it was the best we could make the songs.

“We’re never afraid to try new things, like not having a sound that’s only doing a couple of things in each song. Trying to better each other was huge. There are some parts of some songs, one of us, or maybe a few us were unhappy with, a chorus or a certain part and then we’d all just talk together, or try a few things, and we’d do it so all four of us were on the same page.”

“We’re never afraid to try new things”

Being on the same page is the most integral part of the Tiny Moving Parts story. A band that consists of brothers Matthew and William Chevalier, along with Dylan, their cousin, you wonder how they’ve survived for so long. “It works out to our advantage,” Dylan offers. “Matt, William and I, we hang out with each other all day, every day anyway.

“When we’re not on tour, we’re usually just at home, practising or watching TV together, or just hanging out because we’re family, but we’re also best friends too. We never get into major arguments or anything like that. We just work well with each other, which is important because I can see why some bands fall apart or why some things don’t work out when you go tour with certain people for the majority of the year.”

Adorning the cover of ‘Swell’ is a message that may not be instantly clear until you hear the record and understand just what Dylan and co. are conveying. The ragged hand, missing a digit, bandaged and bruised is still defiant – breaking out a cool, calm and collected hang loose sign.

“The whole meaning of the whole record is just trying to stay optimistic or positive when you’re in a swamp, or a shitty situation,” Dylan affirms. “It shows that on a hand with a cut off finger; the person’s struggling, but also doing the surfs up hand movement, so it sends a positive message. Like, ‘Now I’m okay’.”

It’s an ethos that carries throughout the band. “We’re just super grateful; we never expected to tour outside of basement shows. That was like the farthest we’ve ever dreamt of our goal of being in a band,” Dylan concludes.

“We’re very, very, happy that this has happened to us and we just want to keep growing and tackle more of the world, go to as many places as we can and play in front of as many people. And just spread a positive message, you know?”

Tiny Moving Parts’ album ‘Swell’ is out now. Taken from the February 2018 issue of Upset. Order a copy now below.